Issue(s): Hulk #187, Hulk #188
Cover Date: May-Jun 75
Title: "There's a Gremlin in the works!" / "Mind over mayhem!"
Credits:
Len Wein - Writer
Herb Trimpe - Penciler
Joe Staton - Inker

Review/plot:
A group of SHIELD and army agents fly into Soviet territory to rescue Glenn Talbot. Bruce Banner, recently cured of being the Hulk, stows away on their plane. Banner of course Hulks out as their plane is attacked, and the Hulk finds himself in the middle of Siberia for no good reason. Talbot is being held by the Gremlin, the son of the Gargoyle that appeared in the very first issue of the Hulk.

As the Hulk rampages around the Russian base (the Gremlin actually captures the Hulk for a while and tries to brainwash him, but the Hulk is so dumb he is resistant to mind control), the SHIELD team rescue Glenn - or at least Glenn's body. It turns out that his mind has been switched with a Soviet operative named Gregory Kronski.

Clay Quartermain leads the SHIELD team, and they are maintaining his permanent grin expression from his earlier appearances.

The team eventually gets out with Talbot's mindless body, but Hulk is stuck behind fighting a rhyming triceratops/dog creature...

...and is seemingly killed when SHIELD blows up the base.

Silly story.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Hulk #184-193 take place between Giant-Size Defenders #3-4. Banner has been at Hulkbuster Base since the end of the last arc. Fourteen hours are said to have passed.

References:

• SHIELD agent Clay Quartermain first appeared in Strange Tales #163.
  
• The Hulk faced the Gremlin previously in Hulk #163.
  
• The Gremlin's father the Gargoyle appeared in Hulk #1.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

"Droog" is the name given to the violent young punks in the novel/film "A Clockwork Orange".

It derives from the Russian word for friend, "drug" (pronounced droog).

It's a little like Gremlin naming his pet triceratops "Buddy."

Droog speaks great English for a Russian-made creature. (Reprimand?)

Awesome! I've been reading your entries from the first issue onwards, and I finally reached the oldest comic I own!

(I do have a few Dutch Spider-Man Classic comics that take bits and pieces from the original Green Goblin saga, the Harry Osborn drug plots and the death of Gwen Stacy, but they don't reprint the whole thing. This is the first comic I REALLY own)

Hey, if the Gremlin wants to own a rhyming talking triceratops/dog, then I say let him. Weirder things have existed in the Marvelverse and this is actually cute.

Droog actually reappears briefly in the 2006 Daughters of the Dragon miniseries.

Yeah, I saw that Droog appearance in Daughters of the Dragon # 4. I wonder if the 'Gremlin' appearance therein was just a mistake, as he seemingly died in Iron Man # 229, but I was hoping instead that he was brought back. The character therein seems to be referred to as "Megacephalo" in the MCP but where the heck that name came from is unclear to me, as he wasn't named in that issue (unless I missed it somehow).

Why was Clay Quartermain always grinning in his early appearances?

Oh man, I loved Quartermain's early appearances. He looked so hilarious grinning like that all the time. Maybe it was a way to show his self-confidence? Or maybe the artists just thought it was an easy quirk to give him so he could look different compared to regular SHIELD agents. It certainly made him a memorable character, at least for me.